No Escape
by As the cherry blossom falls
Summary: Harper unknowingly brings a stowaway on board.
1. Default Chapter

A great night out.  
  
"Hey stud...let's say we get to know each other better?"  
  
"Well I'd say that's a great idea!" Wow, thought Harper, this gal was absolutely gorgeous. Much better looking than the girl he'd tried to pick up earlier, subsequently that's where he had received the red mark on the side of his face. And this girl was actually coming on to him!  
  
The red headed girl led Harper by the hand to a booth right in the corner of club. She sat him down first then sat in his lap, putting her arms round his neck. Putting her head very close to his ear she whispered to him,  
  
"So what's your name then? I can't call you stud forever can I now?"  
  
"Well I wouldn't mind that," he chuckled to himself, "My name's Harper. Seamus Zelazny Harper to be exact."  
  
The red-head looked like she was going to laugh but thought it better not to. "Nice to meet you Seamus. I'm Lorethel Passion, but you can call me Lor, all my 'close' friends call me Lor." She leant back to see if her innuendo had the desired effect. Apparently it had. Harper looked slightly flushed and considerably more horny.  
  
"Lets go somewhere quieter so we can 'talk'. You got anywhere we can go?" Lor stood up and brushed down her skirt. She looked from her skirt and stared into Harper's eyes with amazing intensity.  
  
"Yeah, uh, yeah. We can go to my room here in the port. Follow me, I'll lead you to the best night you've ever had!"  
  
And with that Harper dragged the girl out of the bar and down the street towards his hotel room. 


	2. One drug or Two?

One drug or two?  
  
Harper fumbled in his pocket for his key card, hoping to the divine that he hadn't lost it. He turned to the girl and gave an apologetic smile. The girl just smiled back at him and placed her hand on his ass.  
  
He thought he was going to get lucky right there in the corridor when she reached into his back jeans pocket and pulled out his key card.  
  
"Would this be what you're looking for? She said, smirking at him and holding up the key card in front of his face.  
  
He was so embarrassed. He could even feel his cheeks turning red. Giving a nervous little laugh, he took the card and stuck it in the door.  
  
He opened the door with a flourish and stepped in, "This I my hum..."  
  
Harper didn't get to finish his sentence. The girl stuck a syringe into his neck and injected a purple substance into him. He fell to the floor with a thud almost instantly.  
  
The girl put the syringe away and quickly closed the door. She stared at Harper lying on the floor and was glad that he was only small. Lifting him up from underneath his arms, she flung him onto the bed.  
  
"Ugh" The room was a disgusting mess. Lor knew she would never have picked this guy up in any normal situation. However, this wasn't a normal situation. She opened a small pouch on her belt, took out a very tiny metallic object and blew onto it. The little object in her hand unfolded tiny arms and started crawling over her hand.  
  
She moved over to the bed and sat down beside his head. Smiling to herself, she picked the spider-like object between two fingers and put onto his neck beside Harper's data port. The little machine crawled around in little circles before heading straight into his data port.  
  
Satisfied that her work was done, Lor got up and headed for the door. Before leaving she looked in the mirror and wiped off her lipstick. She hated wearing make-up.  
  
With one look back at Harper, she opened the door and left. 


	3. Rough

Rough  
  
BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG  
  
"UGHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" What was that noise! Harper clutched his head in agony. It was throbbing already and loud noises were NOT helping.  
  
Waking up properly, Harper realised it was someone knocking on the door. He dragged himself out of bed to go answer it, pausing at the mirror beside the door. He noticed he was wearing the same clothes as he was wearing last night. Must have been a good night he thought, funny how he couldn't remember anything about it apart from arriving at the bar.  
  
BANG BANG BANG BANG  
  
"OKAAAYYY!" He shouted opening the door.  
  
Trance was standing there looking slightly scared at Harper's outburst.  
  
"Sorry Harper, I was just getting a bit worried because you didn't answer the door after the first nineteen knocks. I thought something bad might have happened to you and then...."  
  
"Hey it's ok Trance babe. I was just sleeping that's all. Must have had a rough night last night. What did you want?" He rubbed some sleep out of his eyes so he could see better.  
  
Trance put her hand up to her mouth. "Oh I nearly forgot! I was told to tell you that we're leaving in five minutes." She looked over his shoulder into his room, "Do you need help packing?"  
  
"Yeah, if you don't mind." He stepped past and let her into the room.  
  
Trance set straight to work and helped him stuff his clothes into a small rucksack. At one point, she held the clothes down with her tail while Harper pulled the ties closed.  
  
"Thanks Trance. You're a star!" Harper said as Trance whipped her tail out of his rucksack and picked the rucksack up with it.  
  
"Hurry up and follow me or they'll leave us behind!" She said running out the door, dropping the rucksack onto Harper's head.  
  
"Ow! Ok, coming my purple princess!" He said mockingly and started chasing her down the corridors out to the ship.  
  
Tyr was standing menacingly at the entrance, looking very annoyed. "Late again, boy. Someday I will leave you behind. I'm sure no one will miss you."  
  
Harper gave him his famous cocky grin "'cept you of course, I'm your favourite kludge!" Tyr gave him a shove into the ship and the doors closed behind them. The ship rose into the air and then sped off into space. 


	4. Do you feel funny?

Do you feel funny?  
  
Whack!  
  
"Come on you stupid piece of crap!"  
  
WHACK!  
  
"WORK!"  
  
beep beep beep beep beep....  
  
"Ugh, finally" Harper wiped the sweat dripping off his forehead. He'd been working on one of Trance's medical machines for an hour, and in the end all it took was an almighty whack.  
  
"You know Harper. You didn't need to hit it so hard." Trance was looking a bit miffed. She didn't approve of his 'technique' sometimes.  
  
"Oh come on Trance! It's working now, ok? That's all that matters in my view." He was feeling exhausted, he had started fixing this machine the minute he'd gotten on board and now he had to fix one of Andromeda's circuits from inside her mainframe. That always took it out of him. Though he had load of other things to fix so he thought he'd better get to it, on the double as his aunt would say when he was a kid.  
  
He started walking towards the slipstream core, all the time trying to think about what exactly had happened last night. It was really strange, he remembered walking into the bar/club, chatting up a girl, getting hit by the same girl and ordering more drinks. But after that, nothing. Absolutely nothing. He tried to think harder. Like, come one, something had to be in there. He hit himself in the head in an attempt to jog his memory.  
  
"OW!" Maybe he'd himself too hard.  
  
"Here I AM!" He walked through the door and sat down next to a computer. He picked up a jack as usual and stuck it into his data port...  
  
"AAARRRRRGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHH!"  
  
'hasssa farrrra shiiiiiiii hasssa farrrra shiiiiiiii' something was whispering to him.  
  
He felt himself half in Andromeda's matrix and half in his body. It was NOT a nice feeling at all. His body in both reality and virtual reality was in fits.  
  
"Harper, are you alright?" Virtual Andromeda asked.  
  
"ARRRGGGGHHHHHHH......ghhghhgggghghhhhhg." Harper couldn't speak. He was in so much pain. His head felt like it was going to explode. He wanted his mommy. Arrrgghhhh, it was so soooooorrrrrre.  
  
"Dylan, Harper's in the slipstream core. He's tried to jack into me but he's not fully here. It's attacking both of us. Something's in here with me Dyl....."  
  
Andromeda froze. Systems shut down all over the ship. Dylan raced towards the slipstream core with Tyr and Beka. When they got there, they saw Harper writhing on the floor with the jack still in his neck, smoke billowing up from it.  
  
Beka rushed over and ripped it out of his neck. Harper calmed down immediately. He opened his eyes and saw Beka.  
  
"It's ok kid, it's ok. I've got you now. Shhhh shhhhh." She scooped him into her arms while he whimpered like a little puppy.  
  
Tyr and Dylan looked at each other with the same thought going through their heads.  
  
This was bad. 


	5. Whispers in the Darkness

Whispers in the Darkness  
  
Harper could feel himself inside Andromeda's matrix, could see files and data streams. But something was wrong, the atmosphere wasn't right. He tried to move but all he could do was a jerky jig across the floor.  
  
"Ooohhh no. This just had to happen to me, didn't it. Ok Harper, time to get yourself out of this little mess." He lowered himself to the floor, the first thing on the agenda was to get rid of these jerks.  
  
"I am one with myself and all that is around me. I focus on my needs at this time. May the divine help me. I am one with myself and all that is around me. I focus on my needs at this time. May the divine help me." He opened one eye and looked at his hand. He willed his little finger to move. It did. Now he willed the other fingers to move. They all did. He wiggled his fingers, then his wrist and finally his whole arm.  
  
"WOO HOO!" All body parts were moving smoothly, like he'd just been oiled. "Wow. Thank the divine that Rev taught me how to focus. Now to work!"  
  
He stood up and looked around him. Not knowing where exactly to start, he started to wander about, looking for anything out of the ordinary. Nothing here, thought Harper, Nothing here either, and look at that, nothing here aswell! He wasn't going to be going anywhere soon.  
  
"Hassaaaaaaa.........." Something swished past Harper's back.  
  
"What? Who's there? Is that you rommie? Rom-doll? Sweetcheeks?" asked Harper, turning round into the darkness.  
  
"Farra shiiiiiiii........" Now the 'something' was behind his back again.  
  
"This is too freaky for me. If you're out there Rommie, show yourself!" He shouted his last words at a shadow lurking behind a data stream.  
  
The shadow started moving towards him. Maybe shouting at it hadn't been the right thing to do.  
  
"Hey, sorry there pal. Didn't mean to insult you or anything so if you could just leave I'd ...be ... verrrry....." The shadow was right in front of him now. Slowly it started to materialise before his eyes. What he saw wasn't pretty.  
  
The creature before him was as black as deep space and at least six and a half feet tall. It stood on spindly hind legs with sharp claws on the end. Its arms hung down to the floor with even longer, bigger and sharper claws on the ends. The creature looked down at him, revealing its face of horns and sharp teeth, balanced on top of a massive torso that Tyr would have envied. Deep, neverending black eyes stared at him, willing him to make a move so it could slice Harper's head off. Which incidently, wasn't what Harper exactly wanted to do today.  
  
"Heh heh...uh.......hi?? " Harper gave the monster a tiny wave, when he suddenly felt himself being pulled out of the systems. Finally, thought Harper. He opened his eyes, focusing on Beka's worried face.  
  
"Oh kid! I was so worried. You've been unconscious for over an hour. We thought we'd lost you inside Rommie's database forever!" She exclaimed, giving Harper a bone-crushing hug.  
  
"Ooof! Bekaaaa!" He said in a strangled voice, trying to free himself.  
  
"Oh sorry!" Beka stood back looking a bit sheepish.  
  
Harper spotted Dylan in the corner of the med deck and suddenly remembered the monster inside the database.  
  
"Dylan! I saw something inside while I was unconscious. You have an intruder and it's not like any virus I've seen before."  
  
Dylan marched over to the bed, looking very anxious "What was it Mr. Harper? What did you see?All Andromeda's sytems have been shut down."  
  
"Well, I don't think it's a virus. I think that whatever I saw, is as real as you and me. It wasn't artificial, I could feel a consciousness. That monster was alive. I'm scared Dylan, I think that IT and many more like it are coming." He paused, realising what had to be done.  
  
"We have to boot it out of where it doesn't belong!" 


	6. Don't argue with me young man!

Don't argue with me young man!  
  
"Please Dylan!"  
  
"No Mr Harper. I'm not gonna let you go back into the data-base. It's just too risky." Dylan was having none of this. They had nearly lost their engineer, and their friend. He wasn't about to let it happen again.  
  
"But Dylan....!" Harper was sitting up on a bed on the med deck, ready to leave and fight this unknown enemy. But for some reason, Dylan was just as adamant that he stays and 'rest', for freakin sake.  
  
"That's my final word on this Harper. Andromeda will try to contact this, stow-away, and make it leave. I won't argue this matter anymore." He said, then walked out the door to command.  
  
"Ugh....!" Harper exhaled in annoyance and flopped back onto the bed. He knew that whatever was shutting down systems all over the ship, was not going to leave after being asked politely by Andromeda. No, this had to be done with force. He needed to get back into the database without being detected. Easy, he thought, what isn't easy is figuring out how to get rid of this monster, alien, I don't freakin know thing!  
  
Closing his eyes, he evened his breathing, tried to focus on a solution. Come on brain, you can do this, you can think of a way to cut this guy out of our systems.  
  
He sat up straight so quickly he nearly hit his head on the medical lamp.  
  
"That's it. I'll isolate his source! Of course!! I'm a genius!!"  
  
Throwing back the covers, Harper raced out of the medical deck, thinking as he ran. The machine shop would be the best place to enter the database undetected. He'd done it many times before and Rommie had never noticed. Twice on his way to machine shop 17, he nearly ran into his crewmates. He knew he had no time to waste. It was only a matter of time before the creature found out how to cut life support, and then they'd all be dead. He shuddered, not wanting to think about that now.  
  
Harper reached the machine shop in record time. He fiddled about first with one of the data ports for a couple of seconds before he sat down and got ready to plug himself in.  
  
He took one big breath, "Here we go! Harper saves the Andromeda - take one! Action!" 


	7. Harper saving the Andromeda Take 1

Harper saving the Andromeda - take one  
  
He felt that familiar tugging sensation as he plugged himself into the ship, and found himself back in the database looking at all the data streams running past him.  
  
Harper took a deep breath before he started looking for the "Thing" as he affectionately liked to call it.  
  
"Riiiiiiiiiight... if I was a horrible big scary monster who wanted to destroy the ship and my friends, where would I hide." He mused as he wandered around the database. Every where he looked he could see chewed up data streams and files, literally! It was a mess, and if I get out of this alive I'll be the one to clean up, joked Harper to himself. Looking round another corner, he saw nothing, again!  
  
"This is hopeless!" he shouted to the air, thrusting up his hands "Where is this THING!"  
  
"Looking for meeeee?" something rasped from behind him.  
  
Spinning round, he saw the tall, black alien staring down at him. Wow, it was scary. Really. Scary.  
  
"Heh! Hi, Mr alien. Um, I'd like you to, uh, I suppose, uh, leave? Please?" Harper squeaked.  
  
"Noooo. I will not Leeeeeeave. And yooooou can't make me short, weak, little maaaan!"  
  
This got Harper riled. He could handle being called little, hell even sometimes he could handle short, but weak he was not.  
  
"Sorry to tell ya this asshole! But you WILL be leaving, and if you won't leave by your own accord, then I'm just gonna have to kick your shiny, black ass right outta here. Got it?" he yelled right in the aliens face before running past it.  
  
Harper could hear the alien right behind him. With those long legs it wouldn't be long before it caught up with him. He had to find out where the 'Thing' was operating from. He ran down endless corridors of information when he stopped suddenly and ran back to the last turn off.  
  
"Of course!" he exclaimed before running down this new corridor. He had found where the creature had made its home for the past few hours. The command deck. It made perfect sense. The command deck was where they made all their decisions from. It was where they controlled the whole ship from and where Andromeda was stored. It was also one big mess on the information database side of things. That stupid alien had destroyed everything! Chewed up data streams and broken connections littered the floor. The first thing he had to do though was get Andromeda back online, if anyone could help him it was her.  
  
That was easy. Being the big freakin' genius he was, he had Andromeda up and running in thirty seconds. He fiddled with two connections when Andromeda fizzled to life before him.  
  
"Harper! What's happening..." She looked into space as if concentrating for a second then stared in horror at Harper, "There's something else in here!" She whispered, acknowledging the creatures presence.  
  
"Yeah, tell me about it. But first things first. We need to figure how to get it out of here. It's destroying the ship. If we don't work fast it'll find life support and cut it off. Then everyone will be dead. So... do you have any idea how it's in your system?" He asked Andromeda.  
  
She closed her eyes and after a couple of seconds, "It's jacked in, that's for definite. So that means if we can find out where it's jacked in we can kick it out. Let's go." She said as she ran off .  
  
Harper looked surprised for about a second before following her.  
  
"I can sense the creature but I can't sense its entry point at the moment. If I wander about enough, I should be able to detect that point. It must have left some information streams somewhere." She mused as she ran in no particular direction. However, the creature had been good at covering its tracks. After searching the database thoroughly, Andromeda stopped dead, "It's no use Harper. There's no trace of where it came in. I'm sorry." She looked at Harper, her eyes full of sorrow and despair. She wanted to help him, he could see that, but at the moment she just couldn't see how. He couldn't stand to see her that way, he had to make her feel happiness again.  
  
Closing his eyes, he searched his brain for some brilliant idea he just hadn't thought of yet. There had to be some trace of that creature. It wasn't entirely methodical. It was just destroying the database as it went merrily along. Yes!!  
  
He opened his eyes and jumped for pure joy.  
  
"Yes! Andromeda, you'll have records of when exactly your systems all went off line, won't you?" He asked with a sense of urgency in his voice.  
  
Andromeda looked confused. She furrowed her brow "Yes, but how will that help?"  
  
"Look in your records and see what system was first to go down."  
  
Pausing for thought, "The door locks in your quarters. Oh of course! I get it now, that'll be the first thing it destroyed so that is where it entered the system! O Harper, you are a genius!"  
  
"So I keep telling everyone!" he joked.  
  
"You need to get out of the system and extract this thing by force." She said with conviction.  
  
Harper wasn't entirely convinced that this was the bet way to go, "But it's a big scary alien. What am I gonna be able to do?"  
  
Andromeda sighed in exasperation, "Harper, If it entered through the door controls in your quarters then it's not gonna be very big now is it? In fact, I bet that it's actually tiny. That way it wouldn't have been detected."  
  
"Okay, I'll go. Just don't blame me if I screw up." He mumbled before he fizzled out of view, having just exited the system.  
  
Andromeda smiled to herself, "You won't screw up. I trust you." 


	8. Showdown

Showdown  
  
The machine shop came back into view as Harper exited Andromeda's systems. Now he just had to go extract a scary alien monster thing from the system too.  
  
Oh goody.  
  
No time to be wasted though, he thought with more conviction than he felt. Standing up, he took a breath to steady himself, then promptly ran off toward his quarters.  
  
When he got there, he realised he didn't have a clue what he was going to do. Staring at the door controls in front of him, he desperately tried to think of an idea.  
  
Any idea.  
  
At all.  
  
Anything?  
  
He whacked his head in an effort to hopefully whack an idea into it.  
  
Didn't work.  
  
Now he had a sore head as well as no idea.  
  
Great.  
  
"Well if it's small, I'll need something to magnify it." He reached into his toolbelt and brought out his magnifier. He usually used it when he was working in the machine shop.  
  
Slipping it on his head, he then unscrewed the panel in front of the door controls. He wasn't prepared, however, for what he saw behind it. The whole thing had been rewired. A black substance had spread all over the wires like ivy.  
  
Turning up the magnification, Harper spotted something in the centre underneath all the new wiring. Being careful not to disturb the wiring, he poked his way through until he uncovered what was underneath.  
  
It was a tiny little bot. Miniscule really, the only reason he could see it at all wa because of the magnifier. Actually, it sort of looked like a spider, a squished one, with its legs all akimbo.  
  
He smiled to himself, he hated spiders and he was gonna make this one pay for the damage it had done. It had to be extracted carefully though, he couldn't risk leaving any part of it in the system. He got out his pointed tweezers and got a hold of the body of the machine, and with a pick he started to extract the machine carefully, leg by leg.  
  
Eight legs later, Harper had successfully taken the machine out. Dropping his pick, he reached into his belt pocket and pulled out a little baggie that he sometimes used to hold small nuts and bolts. Opening up the bag, he dropped the little bastard that had caused all this mayhem into it. Then sealed it with a great amount of satisfaction.  
  
He noticed that around him, Andromeda was slowly powering back up. Holo- Rommie suddenly appeared in front of him.  
  
"I knew you could do it Harper!" she beamed.  
  
"Hey, so did I!" Harper joked.  
  
"Communications back online." Announced Andromeda.  
  
Dylan's voice immediately came over the communications system. "What did you do Harper?"  
  
Harper looked at Holo-Rommie before replying. "Come to machine shop 17 immediately. I have something to show you." And with a smile, he set off for the machine shop with a skip in his step. 


	9. The Chapter with no name!

Finale-or is it?  
  
When Harper arrived at the machine shop, everyone had arrived to see what he had done to save the ship. Beka, Trance and Rommie looked at him from where they were all standing, in the centre of the room, with massive smiles on their faces. Dylan and Tyr, however, were looking very normal at separate ends of the room. Dylan was fiddling with one of Harper's new inventions, with a curious look on his face.  
  
Harper ran over quickly and wrenched his hand away from the button Dylan had been about to push.  
  
"I wouldn't press that if I were you. That's the self destruct button." He raised his eyebrow at Dylan.  
  
Dylan looked a little flustered and embarrassed at being caught acting foolish. "Thank you Mr Harper..." he mumbled and then coughed.  
  
Then in a much more important sounding voice he asked Harper, "So, what was causing our little catastrophe?"  
  
Harper smiled and reached into his pocket, bring out the little baggie with the tiny metal spider in it.  
  
"This is the little bastard who's been chewing up our systems. It's some sort of robot."  
  
Everyone was looking confused so Trance spoke first.  
  
"Um, Harper? There isn't anything in that bag." She looked at him with worry written all over her face.  
  
"Au contraire, mon ami! Grab one of my magnifiers and take a look!"  
  
She did as she was told and looked once again. She was silent with concentration for a second, then gasped and recoiled in horror, "Oh, ugh, it's a horrible little spider!"  
  
"Yep!" said Harper, "this tiny thing must have gotten on the ship somehow and since it was so tiny it went undetected. It then crawled into the data port in my door controls, setting up a little nest for itself..."  
  
"Spiders make webs. Not nests." Trance interrupted to correct him.  
  
Harper looked at her with pure annoyance before continuing, "As I was saying, It crawled in there and just inserted itself into the system. The question is what do we do with it now?"  
  
"Destroy it." Tyr suggested from where he was leaning on a wall.  
  
"NO!" Harper shouted, before looking slightly sheepish of his outburst, "I mean, we can't. I don't think its just some mindless machine. I think that someone's conscious mind has been inserted some how into this tiny machine."  
  
Dylan walked over to him and picked up the baggie, "Well what do you suggest we do, Mr Harper?"  
  
"Well, you won't be very happy with me, but I think we should talk to it in the Matrix again."  
  
Angry outbursts came from all round the room. Beka especially was not happy.  
  
"Are you crazy? It'll just take over the ship again!"  
  
Harper held up his hands, in defence mostly, but also to emphasise what he was saying, "Woah! Wait a second! It won't take over the ship 'cause I won't let it. I'll put so many firewalls round it that it won't be able to even move! It'll be fine. We need to find out why it's here."  
  
Everyone was quiet as they realised that, for once, Harper was right.  
  
"Well, tell me when you are ready for me to go into the database, Harper." Said Dylan before he turned to walk out the door.  
  
Harper grabbed Dylan's arm, "Wait! I think I should go and talk to this thing. I have a sneaky suspicion that I was the one who brought it in to the ship. It possibly could have hitched a ride inside my data port. The spider thing sure is small enough." He watched Dylan carefully for any sign that he'd let him go.  
  
After a long pause while Dylan deliberated in his usual fashion, he gave a sigh, "Ok. You can speak to him, but make sure those firewalls are damn strong."  
  
"Thanks Dylan!" Harper was so excited that gave Dylan a salute, albeit a very sloppy one, before setting to work on the firewalls.  
  
Beka, Tyr, Trance and Rommie all looked at each other with surprise, before they left Harper in peace. 


	10. Talkie Time

Talkie time  
  
The firewalls were all in place and Harper was ready to go. It was decided that he would talk to the machine on the command deck. That way, everyone would be there if he needed help and all the data port entry could be monitored and controlled.  
  
Harper connected the machine to a wire and then sat himself down on the floor, ready to plug himself. Everybody looked at him with encouragement.  
  
I need all the encouragement I can take, thought Harper. He took one last look at everyone before he inserted the jack into his neck.  
  
When he opened his eyes he saw the monster/alien, but this time it was inside a cage. It was roaring in annoyance when it suddenly spotted Harper.  
  
"What have you done to meeeee! Let me ooouuut!" It screamed at him while shaking its bars.  
  
He smirked to himself and calmly walked over to the cage, "As you can see, there I no way that you can escape. So the best thing that you can do is tell me why you are here." He stared straight into the creature's eyes with intensity that he never knew he had.  
  
The creature stopped shaking its prison and looked at Harper. It paused, then stood back to the middle of the cage. The air around it shimmered and the creature appeared to shrink before his eye. When the air inside the cage had stopped shimmering, what was standing there was not the big scary monster that had been there two seconds ago. What stood in its place was a small, pudgy man in glasses.  
  
The change was so different that Harper fell about laughing. This was what he had been scared of!  
  
"I'm not that funny," said the pudgy little man.  
  
"I'm afraid it is. So, care to let me know why you chose to look like a big scary alien?"  
  
"Well, I didn't want you asking me questions. If you saw a monster, you wouldn't want to stick around. You would have laughed like you just did if I had kept my original form."  
  
Harper raised an eyebrow at the little man, "Well, I'm asking questions now. Answer them."  
  
The little man sighed, "I was sent here."  
  
"By who?"  
  
The little man was silent. Harper reached through the bars and grabbed the man by the neck, "BY WHO?"  
  
"Ack, gack, gh. I....was....sent.....by...the..........abyss!" The little man croaked.  
  
He dropped the man on the floor and wiped himself down. "Much better."  
  
"Now, what did the abyss want you to do. And tell me straight away this time if you know what's good for you. My friends are monitoring this conversation, and if I give them the signal.........they'll crush your little metal ass."  
  
The man looked very scared and burst forth with answers, "The abyss took my body and inserted my conscious self into this machine. He told me that I had to disable your ship so that you wouldn't be able to defend yourselves against the magogg. The magogg world-ship is waiting in the next system for the signal that you have been disabled. They plan to attack the Commonwealth Headquarters. Don't hurt me!"  
  
With no hesitation, Harper disconnected himself and came to on the command deck again.  
  
"Did you hear that?" he said a he got up off the floor.  
  
"Yes, we need to warn the Commonwealth. I'm sure there are enough ships to finally take down these damn magogg. Beka, inform the Triumvirate that I have to talk to him urgently." Dylan said to Beka over his shoulder.  
  
"I'll get straight to it, boss." She said as she ran to the communications console.  
  
He turned back to Harper, "Good one Mr. Harper, we haven't been able to find that worldship in months, and now thanks to you, we can attack it."  
  
Harper blushed, "Well, It wasn't all me."  
  
Dylan playfully swatted him in the head, "Just take the compliment Harper!"  
  
"Thank you." He beamed. So happy that he was important now.  
  
Dylan walked away to the screens to talk to the Triumvirate. However, Harper wasn't paying attention anymore. He was looking at the screen. The little man was sitting in the corner of the cage, crying. Harper's heart twinged. Sure the man had tried to destroyed them, but he was human too, and obviously had all the same human emotions. And right now, the man looked very scared.  
  
Harper sat on the floor again and inserted the jack into his neck.  
  
He saw the man crying uncontrollably in the corner of the cage.  
  
He walked over to the side of the cage, "Hey man. Don't cry. The commonwealth is a bit scary, but the biggest sentence they'll give you is imprisonment. I don't know how long but..."  
  
The man's head snapped up and looked at him with tears streaming down his face.  
  
"You don't get it! I failed! The Spirit of the Abyss will come and kill me! Totally erase me from existence! I'm going to die!" He started wailing again with his head between his knees.  
  
Harper didn't really know what to say. He didn't have a choice to reply though as a bright orange light started to fill the cage.  
  
The man stood up and flattened himself against the bars, "OH NO! HE'S HERE!"  
  
The light grew bigger and engulfed the man. As it grew brighter, Harper had to cover his eyes, now hearing the man's blood-curdling screams as he was destroyed. It was awful.  
  
When the light died down, there was nothing left in the cage. He checked the system to see if there was any trace.  
  
Nothing.  
  
The man had disappeared.  
  
Harper sighed and exited the system. 


	11. Sorrowful End

Sorrowful end  
  
When he came to again on the floor of the command deck, he stood up.  
  
Everyone was hard at work preparing for the attack on the magogg. Dylan was at a console at the front of the room, plotting courses for the battle. Harper walked over to him and tapped him on the shoulder.  
  
Dylan turned round to face him, "What is it?" he stopped when he saw the sad look on Harper's face. "What's wrong?" he said with worry.  
  
"The guy inside the machine. He's gone."  
  
"Gone where?" Asked Dylan in a panic.  
  
"The Spirit of the Abyss came and engulfed him. There's nothing left of the man. Nothing. The machine is empty now. I couldn't do anything. And I never even asked him what his name was." He looked to floor, not wanting Dylan to see the tears that were forming in his eyes. "I feel so responsible."  
  
"Don't. Don't feel responsible. It was either that or we die. He brought it on himself. You saved us Harper."  
  
Harper was silent. He didn't feel like speaking anymore. He turned and walked to the door. On the way, he stopped at the data ports. Underneath the magnifier was the little machine that had held that man's mind. Now it was as empty as he felt at that moment.  
  
"Remember when I turned on that Tesseract machine and saved your life. I did it because you were my friend and Hohne was a stranger to me. You saved your friends today. Would you have rather have done that or saved a stranger's life?"  
  
He turned to see Trance standing behind him. He looked into her eyes and saw the love that she had for him. He realised that the friends that he cared so much about were still here. He stepped forward and hugged Trance suddenly. She wasn't surprised however, she just wrapped her arms round him in a comforting embrace.  
  
He let go after a few seconds and held Trance at arms length. His face was full of happiness and love now. Trance tilted her head and smiled at him, before grabbing him and giving him a vigorous hug.  
  
When she released him, she did an about turn and walked over to Beka.  
  
Harper watched her retreating back and looked at the rest of his crewmates, his family. With his heart full of love now, he knelt down in front of a console and took off its cover, ready to repair his beloved Andromeda. Ready to save the day again.  
  
He was a freakin genius for pete's sake! 


End file.
